FACT: scuba diving accidents are accidents--it's ludicrous to call them anything else...Curtis - Rescue Diver/SalesSeptember 22, 2006 at 09:16:51To correct Kenny, who seems to share BSAC's crude and clumsy
distortions of the English language, the correct term for scuba diving accidents is "accidents", not "incidents". An "incident" is something that happens. We can say "coincident" or "coincidental" about things happening at the same time, for example, "...the scientific discovery resulted from a series of coincidental events". Nothing there that suggests anyone was at risk of injury or death. The term "accident" is also something that happens but
there is a significant difference: what happens is undesirable, unintended and unfortunate, and often results in harm, injury, damage, loss or death.
Obviously, the term "accidents" is not confined to mishaps that result in death as Kenny seems to suggest. For example, "Four occupants of an SUV escaped injury after an automobile accident yesterday on Main Street." If we wanted to downplay the risks of driving a car, we could write, "Four occupants of an SUV escaped injury after an automobile incident yesterday on Main Street" but people who are paid to write about such things know better and so do we. Consider
the following two versions of a news report about a diver injury selected at random from CDNN's Safety News section: Bangor man hospitalized after scuba diving accident
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by LUTHER MONROE - CDNN Safety News Editor ACADIA NATIONAL PARK, Maine (18 Sep 2006) -- A man was airlifted to hospital after a scuba diving accident in Maine's Acadia National Park. Robert Foss, 52, was scuba diving
off Schoodic Point when he encountered problems, surfaced and called for help. People on the beach who heard the diver screaming for help alerted authorities who sent rangers to the scene of the accident. Foss managed to swim to back to shore on his own but he was coughing up blood and experiencing facial paralysis, both signs of decompression sickness. Park rangers immediately called LifeFlight to rush the severely injured diver to
Saint Joseph Hospital by helicopter. Hospital officials have not yet issued a statement related to the injured diver's condition. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Now the sanitized BSAC version which downplays the risks of scuba diving:
Bangor man hospitalized after scuba diving incident
by BSAC Annual Scuba Diving "Incidents" Report ACADIA NATIONAL PARK, Maine (18 Sep 2006) -- A man was airlifted to hospital after a scuba diving incident in Maine's Acadia National Park. Robert Foss, 52, was scuba diving off Schoodic Point when he encountered problems, surfaced and called for help. People on the beach who heard the diver screaming for help alerted authorities who sent rangers to the scene of the incident. Foss managed to swim to back to shore on his own but he was coughing up blood and experiencing facial paralysis, both signs of decompression sickness. Park rangers immediately called LifeFlight to rush the severely injured diver to Saint Joseph Hospital by helicopter. Hospital officials have not yet issued a statement related to the injured diver's condition.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: By the time most students of the English language reach the age of 10 or 11, they are able to understand the difference in meaning between "incident" and "accident", and correctly answer the following question: 1. Three divers were rescued after a scuba diving ( ___________ ). a) incident b) occurrence c) episode d) accident Obviously, the correct answer is "accident".
There is no suggestion that the divers were injured, however, their situation was unintended, undesired, unfortunate: they had to be rescued, which implies, even to non-divers and 10-year-olds, they were at risk of injury or death. Those of us who dive (with the notable exception of Kenny and BSAC) understand that scuba diving always subjects divers to risk of injury or death. BSAC's failure to come to terms with scuba diving "accidents" leaves no doubt their annual
"incidents" reports are just predictable, ongoing episodes in BSAC's long and steady decline into provincialism and irrelevance. | 
